Commonwealth Bank of Australia

In its full-year 2019 results CBA announced that it had invested US$100 million in Klarna, a global payments provider, which recently became one of Europe’s most valuable fintech. 

The Swedish firm recently held a raise of US$460 million of which CBA was part of bringing its value to US$5.5 billion.

The provider currently has over 60 million customers and 130,000 merchants and generated US$627 million of revenue in 2018.

The provider has received attention in the past due to one high-profile investor in the company, US rapper Snoop Dogg and currently operates in 14 countries, with CBA to be its exclusive partner in Australia and New Zealand. 

“We are therefore delighted to announce that with the participation of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Australia’s largest retail and commercial bank, in the equity round, we have also agreed to establish an exclusive partnership for the Australian and New Zealand markets,” said Klarna in a media release.

The provider operates on a model which enables customers to buy online without providing payment details to the merchant, instead Klarna pays and invoices the buyer who gets up to 30 days to settle.